Cotton pickin’ good

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

William Heinemann 2008, 336 pages

WW II has ended and Henry McAllan has brought his Memphis-born wife Laura and their two children to live on a remote farm in the Mississippi Delta. Laura hates the farm as much as her husband loves it, but tries to make the best of a bad job; there is no running water or electricity and she must endure the constant carping of her cantankerous father-in-law. When Henry’s brother Jamie returns from the war a damaged hero, he forms a friendship with another war veteran – Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who work on the farm – and the stage is set for catastrophe.

This is the story of two families and the damage inflicted upon them by war and racism. Events are relayed from the perspective of six characters but it is Laura’s voice which dominates throughout (which is interesting as she otherwise doesn’t get much of a say in what goes on). As moving as it is engaging, the story simmers and bubbles towards a horrific climax.

Mudbound was the winner of the 2006 Bellwether Prize, an award founded by Barbara Kingsolver for literature of social responsibility; it is Hillary Jordan’s first novel.

The hardest word

Sorry by Gail Jones

Vintage 2008, 224 pages

In the wilderness of the Australian outback, an eccentric English couple bring up their daughter Perdita. Neglected by her anthropologist father and her mentally unstable mother, Perdita develops a close friendship with Billy, a deaf mute, and Mary, an Aboriginal girl. But when Perdita’s father is found murdered the sisterly bond she shares with Mary is threatened.

This was a book that started so well for me; I read the first half in one sitting and did not want to put it down. But then life got in the way as it often does and it was a whole week later before I turned the final page. So although I liked this rather bleak story of a little girl caught between two cultures, I’m only sorry I did not give it the attention that perhaps it deserved.

Outcast opinions

The Outcast by Sadie Jones

Chatto & Windus 2008, 352 pages

It is the late 1950’s and nineteen year old Lewis Aldridge is returning to his home in Southern England having served two years in prison. Will he be welcomed with open arms into the bosom of Waterford’s corrupt and uncaring middle class community? Not on your G & T darling! As the storyline shifts between 1945 and 1957, we learn what has turned Lewis into an angry young man only able to express himself through alternating episodes of self-harm and rage.

The Outcast is one of three first novels to be shortlisted for The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, but as to whether I think it will carry off the £30,000 prize money, the jury is out. My husband believes that as a person I am only happy when I am miserable, in which case there was misery aplenty in this one to keep me satisfied for days.

Oh, and I was rather taken with this:http://www.rhgdigital2.co.uk/minisites/bookvideoawards/outcast.asp